Rack Centre

Carrier neutrality and eight undersea cables

Rack Centre operates a facility in Lagos, Nigeria, that stays neutral among carriers and is built to the Uptime Institute's Tier III standard for its constructed facility. The company says it was the first data centre in West Africa to achieve that certification and reports 100 per cent uptime since it opened in 2013. More than 80 carriers, internet service providers, content networks and undersea cable systems are present, and all eight undersea cables serving Nigeria connect to the site. That gives clients the freedom to change providers and negotiate rates.

Local exchange points and CloudOnGround

Nigeria's Internet Exchange Point and the regional ECOWAS exchange point both sit inside the facility, so local and regional traffic can stay local. The company's CloudOnGround service is an independent marketplace where clients choose between local and international cloud providers, all hosted within the data centre.

Physical security and certifications

The site describes ten layers of physical security, biometric access control and round-the-clock CCTV within a private estate, and it says footage is kept for six months and available on request. Its certifications include ISO 9001, ISO 27001, Uptime Tier III, PCI-DSS and GDPR, which the company renews every year. On-site technical teams provide monitoring around the clock and help clients with their infrastructure.

Hyperscale and AI-ready halls

The facility offers 13.5 megawatts of IT power and 7,200 square metres of space for hyperscale and AI workloads. The company says its power usage effectiveness is the lowest in the region, that its IFC EDGE certified design runs on clean energy, and that clients can grow their capacity inside the same estate.

Who uses the centre

Enterprises, carriers and network operators that want connections across Nigeria and West Africa use the centre to reach networks, cloud providers and other customers from a single location.